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Amsterdam University under fire for staying away from Gay Pride

The organisers of Amsterdam’s annual Gay Pride festival have criticised Amsterdam University (UvA) for refusing to take part in this year’s event.

UvA Pride said it was “very disappointed” that the university’s steering council (College van Bestuur/CvB) had declined to offer any kind of support.

Laurens Buijs, chairman of UvA Pride, said the university was not prepared to offer financial support or include a delegate on an academics’ boat in the canal parade.

A request for a face-to-face meeting with Louise Gunning-Schepers, chair of the CvB, to discuss the issue was also turned down.

Amsterdam’s Gay Pride is held in August each year and the parade of canal boats is one of the event’s highlights.

UvA Pride had planned to organise a collective boat for all the city’s main higher education institutions as well as the universities of Maastricht and Leiden. A spokesman said the plans would still go ahead without the UvA’s involvement.

Buijs said he was relaxed about the university’s decision not to offer funding, though he added: “it’s puzzling that other large events such as the Dam to Dam run receive structural support from the UvA”.

But he said the university’s decision to refuse any kind of association with Gay Pride placed “a bomb under the co-operative work between UvA Pride and the CvB.

“Clearly our university authorities feel more uncomfortable with Gay Pride than with a marathon. That’s shocking, but at least it confirms for us that we are still needed.”

A spokesman for the university insisted that the row was a “storm in a teacup”, adding: “As a university we increasingly have less money at our disposal. We would rather invest the money in the development of knowledge than an expensive boat for Gay Pride.”

Source: 'UvA-afwijzing Gay Pride is schandalig'

Photo by Amber de Bruin